REFLECTOR: Blue Mountain and GRT

Michael Watson mikewatsspg at gmail.com
Tue May 5 21:05:17 CDT 2009


Sorry, I meant

Why, the new FRANKLIN fuel injected dual electronic ignition engine of
course.



On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 10:02 PM, Michael Watson <mikewatsspg at gmail.com>wrote:

> Why, the new fuel injected dual electronic ignition engine of course.
>
>
> On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 4:06 PM, Brooke Wolf <bwolf1 at tds.net> wrote:
>
>> Ok Andy and Michael.  You are making it easy.  For me it will be
>> Aerocomposite Prop and GRT avionics.  Now about that engine!!?
>> Brooke
>>
>>
>> On May 5, 2009, at 3:12 PM, reflector-request at tvbf.org wrote:
>>
>>
>> *From: *Michael Watson <mikewatsspg at gmail.com>
>> *Date: *May 5, 2009 2:26:22 PM EDT
>> *To: *Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list <reflector at tvbf.org>
>> *Subject: **Re: REFLECTOR: Blue Mountain Avionics*
>> *Reply-To: *Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list <
>> reflector at tvbf.org>
>>
>>
>> GRT HX is the way to go. These guys are innovative and have one of the
>> best
>> support system in the industry. They just added Flight Director and AHRS
>> driven
>> Angle-of Attack to their synthetic vision HITS unit and they are
>> relatively cheap.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 10:51 AM, Andy Millin <amillin at sbcglobal.net>wrote:
>>
>>>  Warning: This is another one of my long winded posts … you may want to
>>> ignore it now!
>>>
>>>
>>> Evaluating a product can be a difficult subject to broach on the
>>> Reflector.  On one hand, if you have done the research, the community can
>>> benefit.  On the other, it is easy to come off as a shill.  I’m not selling
>>> anything!!!
>>>
>>>
>>> I remember when Blue Mountain debuted at Oshkosh.  They did not have a
>>> working, deliverable unit.  They had a demo unit and were taking deposits
>>> and orders.  They had the largest display I had seen available in glass.  It
>>> looked great.  I don’t normally like it when products are described as
>>> “sexy”, but the Blue Mountain stuff was sexy.
>>>
>>>
>>> At the time I think Chelton was advertising that they had just dropped
>>> the cost of a dual display system from $50,000 to something like $36,000
>>> with the tag line “now cost isn’t a factor!”.  Well hell, buy three!!!  If
>>> BM was selling this big, beautiful unit for $12-14K, the price was very
>>> attractive.
>>>
>>>
>>> Many people recount that Greg Richter is one heck of a salesman.  He
>>> knows how to make things look good.  He has always had highly polished
>>> marketing material.  He knows how to sell the “sizzle”.
>>>
>>>
>>> My friends Jim and Heather Butcher took the plunge and put down a
>>> deposit.  BM said the $12K was a show price.  I think the units went from
>>> $12K to $14K, but I don’t know the exact numbers.
>>>
>>>
>>> Jim and Heather finished their Europa.  They installed the BM EFIS and
>>> EIS.  From the beginning Jim had problems.  Features that were promised were
>>> not in the unit.  Other features technically would work, but Jim had to do
>>> all the research.  They have a Rotax.  Greg said that it would work well.
>>> It turns out they were the first to install BM with a Rotax.  There was
>>> nothing to copy from and BM didn’t know Rotax at all.  Support was minimal.
>>> It was impossible at times to tell if the unit was malfunctioning or just
>>> not calibrated correctly.  Jim is very savvy and very tenacious.  He dug
>>> in.  In the process he found several bugs in the software.  He reported them
>>> to BM.  All the while getting more frustrated.  They were supposed to be
>>> flying not debugging a very expensive piece of equipment.
>>>
>>>
>>> When Jim had most of the EIS working they went flying.  The whole
>>> scenario came back for the EFIS.  I believe the unit was pulled three times
>>> and sent back for update or modification.  Jim is a very smart guy and he
>>> just was not getting it to work.  During his test program, the ELT came up
>>> on his card.  He had yet to turn it on during flight.  He did so.  When he
>>> keyed the mic on the radio, the ELT went off.  How is that related to the
>>> EFIS????   Jim started working the problem.  He found that with the EFIS
>>> off, the problem never happened.  With the EFIS on, it always happened.  He
>>> never researched it further.  He had been fixing bugs for the better part of
>>> two years and had just had enough; the last straw.  The unit was pulled.
>>>
>>>
>>> Jim called BM and asked if an upgrade to the newer box might solve the
>>> problems.  BM said it might, but that they would only give him pennies on
>>> the dollar for his current unit.  That might well have been their last
>>> contact with the company.
>>>
>>>
>>> They replaced it with GRT.  Jim is not troubleshooting problems.  It
>>> works.  They are happy.  They are flying.
>>>
>>>
>>> Over the years I have heard many stories about BM.  It is hard to be in
>>> the Experimental Community and not know at least one person that bought BM,
>>> tried to make it work, and then pulled the thing out and replaced it.
>>>
>>>
>>> I have good friends that spent a great deal of money and got nothing but
>>> headache and heartache.  These are my friends and I have always wished them
>>> well.  I wanted this to work for them.
>>>
>>>
>>> It is also hard at times to hold your tongue when you hear someone say
>>> they want to buy BM.  I wince.  I hate badmouthing anyone.  I want to
>>> balance that against someone getting burned because I didn’t have the guts
>>> to speak up…
>>>
>>>
>>> I’m posting this in the genuine hope that it might be of use to someone
>>> in the decision process.  I have nothing against Greg Richter.  I don’t own
>>> his products.  I think competition is good and the more options we have, the
>>> better.  Let me qualify that, the more GOOD options we have, the better.
>>>
>>>
>>> Like anything else,  please*10^10, do your research.  (field performance,
>>> support, upgrade policy, etc…)
>>>
>>>
>>> In the interest of disclosure:  My good friend Carlos works for Grand
>>> Rapids Technologies.  My research has led me to believe I want their
>>> equipment in my plane.  I don’t work for GRT.  I have heard very good things
>>> about Dynon as well.
>>>
>>>
>>> FWIW,
>>>
>>>
>>> Andy
>>>
>>>
>>> =====================================
>>>
>>>
>>> Andy Millin
>>>
>>> amillin at sbcglobal.net
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Mike W.
> 1997 Velocity Elite RG
> Franklin /IVO Electric CS
> Dual GRT EFIS Synthetic Vision
>



-- 
Mike W.
1997 Velocity Elite RG
Franklin /IVO Electric CS
Dual GRT EFIS Synthetic Vision
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